Red Death
by The TO
Summary: The raiders of Nuka World get more than they bargained for when someone they never could have expected finds their way into the Gauntlet.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is something that I've been working on for a while now and finally got to a spot where I'm comfortable enough to publish it. Odds are it's going to be a one off, but if it gets enough positive reviews I may continue it. I'm still working on my other story, which will likely be done before the beginning of June. I had hoped that by working on something else it might provide inspiration for my other story, and it has. So hope everyone enjoys this little tidbit.

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I gave a smirk as I stared down into the Cola-Cars arena. A man in rust brown power armor was talking to another in a bright yellow metal harness. I had made quick work of their so called 'Gauntlet', making sure to keep my powers hidden. I wanted to enforce how terribly they had messed up when they 'trapped' me in their web.

"You got me all wired up, Gage?" The power armored man spoke in a thick Aussie accent. I could sense the trepidation of the other man as he fiddled with something the back of the armor.

"Yeah Boss, you're all set." He said with a faint southern accent. He took a step away from the 'Boss', who turned to face him.

"Good, now go shut off that damn alarm." He barked at Gage. He obliged his boss and retreated through a security gate. "Now where's my next victim?" He said, turning to look up to where I was stood. I felt his eyes roam over my body. My disgust for this crude man multiplied tenfold. "Hmm, such a waste that I have to kill that pretty face." He chuckled darkly, to which I responded with silence. "Here's how this is gonna work. You're gonna go get stocked up, and then we're gonna give these folks a show." He paced forward slightly, hoping to intimidate me. "A show, where I paint these here walls with your lovely, lovely brains. Thanks to this suit" He banged on the chest piece once, "I'm the only one that wins this fight. Period." He began to walk away from me, back towards where Gage had disappeared. "All right Gage, let her through." He gave a sinister chuckle just before he shut off the intercom. I huffed and pushed the door open. There were several weapons along with a decent amount of ammo laying around in the sparse lockers. Sure enough, Gage's voice came over the intercom once more.

"Well look who made their way through the Gauntlet." Gage said in an almost proud voice.

"Far from the hardest thing I've done in my life." I told him truthfully. Honestly compared to the things I did when I was still in the U.K. this was beyond easy.

"Yeah yeah, good job. Now listen up. This fight coming up, is rigged."

"Anything he can throw against me I'll be able to handle." I said confidently, which apparently wasn't the right thing to say to Gage.

"If you wanna live through this you'd better listen up." He said tersely. "Overboss Colter, that's the asshole in the power armor, he has it set up to where his rig draws power from the arena. Damn thing's invincible. Missiles, miniguns, grenades. You name it, someone's tried it."

"I'll be fine." I said, and proceeded to tune out the rest of his speech. After a few minutes, loud cheering could be heard from further in the arena. Taking that as her queue, she proceeded deeper into the arena, arriving at a security gate. On the other side, Colter was standing in the middle of the arena, trying to pump up the crowd. His power armor covered with arcing electricity. I doubted it would stand up to my power. It was almost disappointing how easy the coming fight would be. I delved into the raider boss's mind and discovered everything your atypical raider would desire. Blood, money, killing. It was despicable. I decided to take a page from my old master's book. A wicked grin split my face as the door to the arena opened and I slowly strode out into the center. Seemingly confused by my passiveness, Colter started jeering at me.

"Aww, what's the matter, love? Too scared to even try to fight me?" He taunted, despite the grin on my face. After a few seconds, he took my passivity as a sign of submission and opened fire on me with his assault rifle. The pain from the bullets was negligible, but seemed to cause a ruckus in the arena as boos from the crowd started rising over the din of gunfire. The gun clicked empty and I figured I'd better play up the whole "being shot" thing. I fell to my knees and then collapsed to the ground in a slowly expanding pool of my own blood. Loud booing could be heard coming from the crowd. The announcer came back on the intercom.

"I guess that's it folks. A pretty fucking lackluster performance from our newest vic. She didn't even _try_ to fight back." I took that as my queue to get up. Slowly, the blood began to seep back towards my body as the bullets were spit out of the rapidly healing holes. Using my unnatural power, I rose, seemingly in rewind of my fall. Colter hadn't seen it yet, but the audience had. Gasps of surprise and terror slowly grew louder as I rose to my feet. For effect, I let out a low, sinister chuckle. Colter froze, and slowly turned around to face me, all my previous wounds completely healed. The look on his face was most definitely worth the miniscule amount of pain I felt from the barrage of bullets.

"What the fuck!?" Colter yelled and hastily reloaded his assault rifle. I would deny him the chance. My shadow arm darted forward and grabbed the armored man, shoving him backwards into the security door with a loud clang of metal on metal. He sunk into the door about a third of a meter before stopping. His assault rifle was laying on the floor five meters in front of him. Slowly, I sauntered forward, making sure to crush his weapon with my armored boot on the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Gage staring on in abject terror. I laughed again, this time much louder, and gripped the metal plate on the chest of his armor with my free hand. With a loud metallic screech, I tore it off and cast it aside. Next, I pulled the helmet from the man, careful not to damage him. His grungy face was wrought in a terrified stare. His eyes bugging out and his mouth open with a silent scream.

"I do so love the look on the faces of my victims before they die." I said with such finality that the man screamed out loud. He flailed for the intercom button, finding it shortly.

"Get in here and help me damnit!" He begged, his voice cracking unnaturally for such a large man. Gage and anyone who was listening obviously ignored his pleas.

"Sorry boss, you're on your own." Despite witnessing a ton of metal and man being handled like a doll, his voice was unnaturally calm. Realizing his predicament almost instantly, Colter bellowed.

"You fucking bastard! You set me u- " Colter's sentence was interrupted by me spearing him through his chest. Gagging noises replaced angry screams as blood began to seep from his mouth. With a tug, I pulled back, the entirety of Colter's heart grasped in my still flesh and bone hand. He looked down at it in complete terror as I crushed it before his eyes. He bled out mere seconds later. Feeling him relax against my grip, I withdrew my shadow arm and reformed the illusion around it. Colter collapsed in a heap, a puddle of blood rapidly forming around him, much in a mirror of what happened to me only minutes ago.

"What the _fuck_ was that!?" The announcer of before shouted. "That wasn't how it was supposed to go down!" The crowd agreed, but kept their voices quiet out of fear.

"Hey, we talked about this!" Gage yelled through the intercom. "She survived the Gauntlet, and she killed Colter. She didn't take my advice, but look at him! Had his fucking heart torn right out of his chest! We got ourselves a new Overboss." Gage said with a finality that mollified the audience.

"Well if she isn't inclined to kill us all, then she has my backing." A blonde woman who could be described as posh-looking if she wasn't decked out in metal armor spoke.

"Agreed," A similarly dressed man added, then followed the blonde out of the room they were in. The crowd beyond the protective glass slowly dispersed. Eventually leaving myself and Gage alone.

"So," Gage started tentatively, as if saying the wrong thing would set me off. "You got the job if you want it." His eyes wandered to where I still held the scraps of Colter's crushed heart. His lips twisted in a grimace. "You aren't a… cannibal, are you?" He asked tentatively. My red eyes fixed onto his as I dropped the meat onto the ground carelessly.

"No, I'm not a cannibal." I told him, a smirk still on my face. I kicked the corpse of Colter to the side, metal screeching loudly as he went. His body stopped about ten meters away, softly impacting a bumper car. He left a wide, bloody streak as he went. Gage stepped away from the deformed door, evidently knowing that I planned to open it. Using my shadow arm, I gripped the handle and pulled. The door came off with some difficulty. I would have to find someone to feed on soon if I wanted to avoid being hungry. I tossed the door aside and strolled through the opening. Gage had a firm grip on his sidearm and a wary look on his face. I made an effort to shake most of the blood that was still on my hand off, but left most of it as it painted a grim picture. It was also something that the raiders would remember, after all it wasn't every day your former boss had their heart ripped out and crushed in front of their eyes.

"So, you're in I take it." Gage said as he warily walked behind me towards what I presumed was the exit to the arena. Some of the oddly dressed raiders were still leaving and all but fled at the sight of me. The masked raiders I noticed were staring at me, for some reason. Gage noticed my confusion at them and spoke up. "Those are Nisha's Disciples. They love that blood and guts shit. You're probably a walking wet dream to them." We eventually made it outside into the unsurprisingly poorly maintained Nuka Town U.S.A. as it was so called. People wearing bomb collars flitted about to and fro, worried and defeated looks on their faces. I spotted the familiar flannel that Harvey was wearing. He noticed me approaching, noting the blood on my arm, and promptly fled into the center area of the town.

"Yeah Harvey always was a chicken shit." Gage's deep voice drawled from behind me. "Probably saw what you did to Colter and figured you were comin' for him next." Gage had obviously gotten comfortable enough to acknowledge the fact that I wasn't going to kill him straight away, and motioned for me to follow him. He led me through the town to a moderately sized artificial lake. On the other side of it was a mock-up mountain with some sort of building anchored to the peak of it. "Those are your new digs, The Fizztop Grill." I gave a hum of acknowledgement and we continued, eventually reaching a construction lift that took the two of us to a ramshackle balcony that was attached to one of the blown-out windows.

Gage plopped down into a chair he was obviously familiar with and cracked open a Nuka Cola. "Well, make yourself at home, Overboss." When I didn't move, he grew nervous. "Look, I know you didn't follow me up here just to kill me, so what is it you're after?" It appeared that the man was smarter than most raiders that I had encountered. "Hell, I don't even know your name." He added after a moment.

"It's Seras," I said dryly, the beginnings of a smirk forming on my face.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I recently rewatched Hellsing Ultimate and got inspired, so have this. Next update in a year, maybe sooner.

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The new Overboss was a mystery. One that I wasn't sure I wanted to solve. On one hand, I didn't have to worry about Mags, Nisha, and Mason killing me in my sleep 'cuz she wasn't doing what they wanted. On the other, Seras was goddamn terrifying at times. 'At times' meaning pretty much all the time. She almost never used any of her scary abilities, which was surprising considering how open she had been when she murdered Colter. Sure, she still showed off her incredible strength and speed, but the flashier stuff was reserved for tough enemies. She went to work almost immediately, clearing out the other parks for the raider gangs, without even a word from me. In under a day, we had cleared out the Kiddie Kingdom and the Dry Rock Gulch.

Now we were heading to the bottling plant. Seras insisted we go in the back way. "I still don't see why we need to go in through the rear entrance. The front is more than likely just as guarded." I complained as we hiked through shin-deep mud that reeked of Nuka Cola. If it didn't have the consistency of paste, I'd consider taking a drink or two from the shallow stream. We reached the far side of the plant, the lake that we had seen the Mirelurks nesting in coming into view. As I double checked that my rifle was loaded, a loud, horrendous screech sounded from somewhere near the lake. My rifle was up in an instant and aimed at the source of the noise as it rose from the water.

"Perfect," I heard Seras whisper almost inaudibly under her breath, and I figured that she didn't intend on me hearing that. She was staring at the mother of all Mirelurks with a hungry look in her eyes. The same look that I'd seen her fix Colter with just before she'd ripped his heart out. She jumped down from our outcropping and slid down the hill towards the monstrous Mirelurk. The Queen turned to look towards the source of the noise, and upon noticing Seras, bellowed angrily. Faster than I could track, she leapt at the charging Queen, and impacted solidly enough that had she been human, it would have broken every bone in her body.

The Mirelurk Queen reared back while it screeched in pain, suddenly finding Seras' right arm lodged in its neck. A quick glance around told me that the other, smaller Mirelurks weren't content to sit around and let their Queen die. A group of around 15 were making their way to where the two monsters were fighting. I opened up on the nearest one, the bullet impacting harmlessly on its shell. It didn't even flinch as it continued to relentlessly pursue Seras as she darted around the edge of the lake, the Queen in hot pursuit after her. She would be overwhelmed if I didn't do anything. I took aim and fired again, this time clipping the joint on the left arm of one of the Kings. This time, it looked my way, but again, it ignored me and resumed its pursuit of Seras.

"Do not interfere!" I heard Seras shout as she ran past where I was perched. "I can kill them myself, you would only get in the way." Her voice had taken the same two-tone echo it had when she was talking to Colter. Her left arm was now in the form of a gigantic sword, a full head taller than Seras was. I could only stare, dumbstruck, as said sword bisected an armored Mirelurk at the waist. Shadowy tendrils erupted from the sword and latched onto the still wiggling upper half of the Mirelurk. She then threw it at several other 'Lurks that were pursuing her, impacting the leading King with a loud crunch. The Queen roared angrily, protesting the death of her children, and charged with renewed vigor. This was what Seras wanted, it seemed, as she jumped and landed on top of the massive 'Lurk. With a cry of effort, she speared the sword into the shell of the beast.

A wide grin split her features almost immediately, and she bellowed a triumphant, borderline maniacal laugh. The Queen Mirelurk began spasming and collapsed to the ground. Shadowy tendrils erupted from many places on the Queen, lashing out at any nearby Mirelurks. A few moments later, the entire Queen was covered with the tendrils. The part that freaked me out was when the blob of shadow started shrinking, as if it was being sucked into another dimension. Eventually it disappeared entirely, leaving Seras alone in the knee-deep muddy water. The Mirelurks near her stood some distance away, not wanting to get too close to the creature that felled their Queen. A particularly angry King charged at Seras, the grin now having left her face. In the blink of an eye, Seras had the King stabbed in the gut and held aloft over her head. It, like the Queen, began twitching. I didn't know what she was doing with it, but given the pleased look on her face, it wasn't good. At least, not for the Mirelurk. After a moment more she tossed the Mirelurk aside like a piece of discarded trash. The remaining 'Lurks, not wanting to tangle with what they saw as an apex predator, fled into the factory.

"Seems every time we get into a fight I see you do something that scares the shit outta me," I said exasperatedly as I walked over to where the Overboss stood, a look on her face that could only be described as happy.

"Well you shouldn't be scared." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "With the power I gained from that Mirelurk Queen I won't have to feed for a long time." She seemed almost content now. In our earlier interactions she always seemed on edge about something.

"What do you mean 'feed'?" I knew I would regret asking this, but I had to know.

"I ate it." She said with such bluntness that I was flabbergasted. "I consumed its body to fuel my own."

"I'm sorry, I must have wax in my ears, because I coulda sworn I just heard you say that you _ate an entire Mirelurk Queen_." The look on my face must have amused her because she let out a soft giggle, one that belied the demon I had seen just a couple minutes ago.

Seras nodded once. "That's right. It's something I do to powerful enemies, since I gain more power from that than simply drinking their blood." So she did eat it. Well, now I could officially say with certainty that if she ever decided that she didn't like Nuka World any more, she could, and likely would, slaughter us to the last. She turned and started for the door that lead to the Nuka Factory.

"So, if you can do that, then why stick around here?" I asked as we entered the massive, sugary smelling complex.

She turned back and looked at me with an expression that could almost pass for human, if she didn't have eyes that glowed like the fires of Hell. "I haven't been to an amusement park since I was a little girl, and I haven't been a little girl for quite some time now. It's nice to just relax and almost pretend like the world hadn't been blown to pieces." Well, damn. When she puts it that was it almost seems like a good idea.

"Were you uh, alive before the war?" I asked as she smashed a clutch of eggs, sending the viscous fluid everywhere.

"For about nineteen years, yes. I was born in the year 1980." She paused, and then turned to look at me. "You seem pretty studious, for a raider. Tell me, have you read many works of fiction?" Blindsided by the sudden question, I tripped over a half-buried skeleton. I felt a hand grip the rear of my metal harness and hoist me back to a standing position.

"Uh, can't say I have. Most of the books that I read were on pre-war America and ancient world history." I grabbed a lukewarm Nuka from a nearby shelf and twisted the cap off. "Why d'you ask?" The cola was intensely sweet, bordering on sour. Evidently this one was nearing its expiration date.

"Well, to put it simply, I was turned by the most powerful vampire on Earth." Her short explanation had an almost melancholy tone to it.

"Holy shit, you mean to tell me there's more than one o' you walkin' around?" I had nearly dropped my Cola in shock. There was someone _stronger_ than this monster that just ate a Mirelurk Queen like it was a pack of Fancy Lad Snack Cakes?

To my relief, she shook her head. "No, he disappeared about a year after he turned me. Never to return." Seras was definitely sad now. It seemed that she cared a great deal for this vamp that turned her. It took us (her) about fifteen more minutes to scrub the place clean of its Mirelurk inhabitants, after which we exited the front way. There was a raider approaching us, someone I recognized as belonging to the Pack.

"Overboss! There's someone coming through the Gauntlet." He said breathlessly as he finally made it to us.

"And?" From the way she drew out the word, I could tell that Seras didn't like the Pack very much.

"You're the Overboss! You have to fight 'em." The Pack member was either extremely ignorant, or suicidal. Probably a little of both.

"Let me tell you something; I don't _have_ to do _anything_." She said shortly, in a way that made you want to piss your pants. From the look on the Pack member's face, he was a few seconds away from doing just that.

"S-sorry, Overboss ma'am. I'll l-let them know that you're-" He stuttered, fear overriding his previous bravado.

"No. I will see what this 'vic' as you so call them, has to offer." Seras said with a tone of finality that made me feel sorry for whoever managed to stumble into the Gauntlet.


	3. Chapter 3

These humans were… interesting, to say the least. I had killed and eaten many of them in my trek across the wasteland. You wouldn't believe the types you come across if you go far enough, yet I hadn't come across any single person strong enough to keep two, let alone three groups of raiders with such contrasting personas together. Each of them could be summed up in a single word. The Pack was primitive, the Operators were posh, and the Disciples were matriarchal.

Yet they all cheered for blood as I entered their 'arena'. Across from me was a slight woman. She was dressed in makeshift metal armor that likely would hinder her as much as it would help, wielding a rifle that looked ready to fall apart at the slightest misfire, and clutching a bloody wound on her leg. She appeared scared and confused. What little I could glimpse of her muddled thoughts revealed that she had fallen for the same ploy that brought me here: Harvey had played the part of a wounded father, fleeing from Nuka World and begging for his life.

I turned to Gage, "Has Harvey returned from the Commonwealth?" He seemed confused by my sudden question. Evidently he expected me to continue with this farce of a show match.

"Uh, yes. He got back about twenty minutes ago." Gage replied cautiously, as if anything he said could set me off.

"Fetch him." I ordered. Gage, not needing to be told twice, hurried out the door. With that settled, I returned my gaze to the woman who had, despite heavy opposition, made it through. It was admirable, for a human. I took a step towards her, prompting her to raise her rifle. I could tell that she was trying to steady her breathing. She expected a real fight. A shame.

The instant the bullet left the barrel, I moved. Before the bullet made it halfway across the arena, I had my hand on her throat. She slammed against the metal door, crying out in pain and dropping her rifle.

"Tell me," The sound of my voice made her freeze. "Did a man named Harvey lure you here?" I knew the answer, but I wanted her to say it.

"Yes." Her voice belied her appearance. It was powerful. Commanding. Resolute. Despite the fact that she believed she was about to die, she kept her voice strong and didn't plead for mercy.

"What would you do if you found yourself face to face with him again?" I asked, my voice in a low, almost sensual whisper. She didn't see it, but my eyes glowed almost imperceptibly as I influenced her mind to bring out her deepest desire. The woman's eyes widened in shock, and her surface thoughts turned violent. I glimpsed a word, no, a name. Shaun, her child. What Harvey had done kept her from finding her child. That was all the answer I needed. I heard the now repaired inner door to the arena squeal open, and turned to see Gage shoving Harvey along. The slave balked at the sight of me, but doubly so when he saw that I hadn't killed Nuka World's newest 'vic'. I released my grip on her throat and stood aside. "Show me."

She didn't disappoint. Rather than reach for her gun, she bellowed a war cry and unsheathed a bowie knife from the small of her back. Harvey tried to escape back into Nuka World, but Gage had already blocked his way. It seemed that he caught on to what I was doing. Harvey tried to run, but mysteriously 'tripped' on a piece of metal that was in his way. The vic was on him in an instant. He tried to block her furious attacks, but only succeeded in adding to his growing list of wounds. The vic struck home with a stab directly into his throat.

The vic was relentless, stabbing Harvey over and over again, each punctuated by a cry of effort. Not counting the wounds he received before her frenzy, there was a total of thirty-one by the time she finished. Harvey's chest had been turned to the consistency of ground hamburger in her rampage. Her breathing ragged, she stabbed the knife into him one last time.

"Good." I spoke firmly. She jumped, as if she had forgotten I was there in her rage. "Stand up," I ordered. She obeyed, likely due to the fact that she was still in shock at what she had done.

"I don't know what happened," She whispered softly. "I just saw him and-"

"Lost control?" I offered. She gave a single nod in reply. "When humans are pushed to their breaking point, they are capable of surprising things." I slowly guided her out of the arena towards Nuka World. I gave a wordless order to Gage to disperse the gangs. As we walked, I caught several raiders staring at my companion, a mix of disgust, hatred, and in the case of some of the Disciples, envy.

"Why haven't you killed me?" She asked suddenly, as if finding the courage to stand up to me. "You designed that course to lure people in to kill them in a bloodsport, so why not kill me?"

"That's where you're wrong," I told her as we reached the exit door of the arena. "I didn't make that glorified meat grinder. I merely stumbled upon it, same as you. Though there was a different person in charge when I did. Know what I did to him?"

"Killed him?" She offered.

"Yes." I replied cockily, leaving it up to her to imagination. "As for why I don't kill you, that's simple." I turned her towards me and forced her to stare into my eyes. "I'm not like them. I don't kill for pleasure, for some twisted sense of entitlement, or for some perceived sense of superiority through Darwinism. I don't kill wantonly, and I only end the lives those who deserve it." I could practically taste her incredulity at my statement.

"You lead a gang of raiders and you only kill those who deserve it? Those raiders deserve it!" She was furious at this point, which surprised me that she could be so brazen after what I just told her.

"Isn't a girl allowed to play with her food?" I chuckled at her aghast expression.

She took a few steps away from me in shock, nearly bumping into a pair of Pack members that were hurrying back towards their part of Nuka-Town. "You're a cannibal?"

"Gage asked the same question, and I'm sure that you'll like the answer even less than he did." I answered her cryptically. "I'll tell you what," I gestured for her to enter the rickety elevator that lead to the Overboss' room of Fizztop. "Tell me your name, and I'll answer you with one hundred percent honesty." She seemed to swallow her pride and step onto the elevator with me.

"Nora." She spoke in an almost whisper.

A genuine smile found its way to my face. "Pleased to meet you, Nora. My name is Seras Victoria." I told her. "Now, to answer your question: are you familiar with the works of Bram Stoker?" Nora floundered for a moment before answering.

"Know it? I minored in literature in college. My professor had me create a thesis on ' _Dracula'_ and how it set up the supernatural genre of fanta-" Her face blanked for a second, as she finally realized what I was implying. "Y-you mean you're…" She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

I dispelled the illusion over my arm and placed the tip of one of the clawed digits under her chin. "The real deal." I took a small mote of pride as she slowly moved her gaze of the almost fire-like movements of the shadows that composed my arm. At the elevator reached its apex, the sun was faintly visible over the top of the fake mountain. Nora shielded her eyes instinctively.

"So, the sun doesn't affect you?" She asked, gulping nervously as I still hadn't removed my finger from her chin.

"Perks of being sired by a 500 year old vampire." I replied, not breaking eye contact. "Though that was almost three centuries ago." I reformed the illusion over my arm and headed inside. Nora hesitantly followed me inside. "In case you're wondering, I was born in the year 1980."

"'Bout time you showed up, boss." Gage called out from further in the expansive room. "Nisha was askin' about the new girl." Aforementioned new girl glared at the yellow clad man.

"My name is Nora," She said with the same determined tone she used on me as I held her up by her throat.

I hummed in thought. "I think I'll pay the Disciples a visit." Nora and Gage both blanched at the notion, before I added "Alone." Nora relaxed, but Gage was still on edge.

"You're not gonna uh," He made a slicing motion across his throat.

"No, though I can't guarantee anything if they start something." I hopped off the edge of the balcony and landed without so much as a noise.

The walk towards the service door that lead to the interior of the mountain was quiet. No one barred my path and it seemed that there wasn't a single soul in the courtyard at all. The first thing I heard upon entering the massive room was a loud, pained scream. Immediately after that, the smell hit me. Death. The floor was practically covered with blood in various states of drying and decay. A metal and wood deathtrap loomed at the base of the room's sole feature: a massive concrete pillar that nearly went to the ceiling. Faintly, I could hear the quiet, pained whimpers of slaves in varying states of torture. It made me sick to my stomach, but if I went and offed the Disciples now, the other two factions would likely devolve into a territory war that ended with their deaths as well.

"Oh, you're here." A woman with a southern accent called out to me from nearby. Judging by the excited tone of her voice, she was one of the Disciples that 'worshiped' me. It didn't really bother me, but having to engage one of them in conversation would prove to be an unorthodox task. It would be so easy if I could just eat one of two of them.

"Gage told me that Nisha was asking about the newcomer." I told her plainly, trying my hardest not to sound bored.

"Yeah! I'll go get her." The woman ran off, practically giggling to herself. Unable to help myself, I sighed in annoyance. They would undoubtedly be the first group I eradicated.

My third eye told me that someone was approaching me with a knife. The perpetrator in question had hidden in the shadows of the door until he thought me sufficiently distracted. I saw Nisha heading towards me from the rickety room. The person behind me would undoubtedly attack once I started talking with Nisha. I was halfway tempted to let the attack hit, if I hadn't already played that card with Colter. Nisha glanced in the direction I knew that the would be assassin was, telling me that she had at least played some part in this. I gave the leader of the Disciples a small smile as the assassin attacked.

A third arm, made entirely of shadow, erupted from my shoulder and caught the arm holding the knife. Nisha blanched at my casual dismissal of the attack, as I merged the shadow arm with my real one, and dragged the assassin into the area between myself and Nisha. The assassin dropped the knife, quivering weakly as she tried to pull away from my iron grip. With but a single motion, I snapped the woman's arm at the elbow. The woman cried out in agony, as I still hadn't released her and was supporting her by her now broken arm.

"Please, don't kill her." Nisha begged, something I had yet to see from the 'fearsome' leader of the Disciples. "It was my idea, I only wanted to test you."

Faster than they could react, and without releasing my grip on her subordinate, I had the Casull aimed at her head. After my master failed to return, Integra gifted the weapon to me. It had its uses, mainly in intimidation given its size.

"You're lying." I shot a smirk at the frightened faction leader. "So, what should we do about this?" I gave the assassin's arm a firm squeeze, feeling her bones pop in protest as I did. She wailed in pain once more.

Nisha floundered for a moment before speaking. "Take her, she's yours." Her voice was even, though I could hear the sadness behind it. Evidently Nisha cared about this woman I was currently torturing. Another shadow arm shot out of my shoulder and latched onto the neck of the assassin. The arm currently keeping holding the woman's dissolved and I enforced the illusion over my new arm. The assassin's arm fell limply to her side, and she cried out in pain once more.

"You know what I mean." I shifted my grip on the Casull, drawing their attention back to the massive hand cannon. Nisha nodded in reply, but I was feeling particularly vicious at the moment. "Say it."

"I-" She paused a moment to gulp nervously. "I lied about testing you. I was- I wanted to kill you, so I told her to ambush you."

"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" I amped up the pressure on the neck of the assassin. Her scream lasted about half a second, before it was cut off by a loud, wet crack as her spine broke. I didn't stop there, however, as I wanted Nisha to get the message. A mere moment later, the would-be assassin's head came off, red viscera spraying everywhere. The body collapsed to the ground limply, a pool of blood growing from where the head used to be. Nisha and her companions stared aghast at the beheaded corpse of what used to be one of them. "Now then, as for what I originally came here for. The 'new girl', as you so call her, is mine to handle."

"Y-yes ma'am." Nisha replied, horror still evident in her shaky voice. The leader of the Disciples was transfixed by the headless body of her former comrade.

"Good."


	4. Chapter 4

**Nora POV**

It's been three days since I followed that bastard's instructions and walked into what seemed like Hell. I had arrived at the place called 'Nuka World', and found a somewhat still functioning theme park. If you counted functioning as being infested by raiders, ghouls, and God knows what else was crawling around in the areas I had yet to explore. Seriously, the Kiddie Kingdom was creepy as all Hell, even _without_ the ghouls and the irradiated mist.

Whenever I had time to myself, that being when I wasn't being forced to go somewhere with Seras, my thoughts inexorably drifted towards my missing son. I honestly didn't know if I was ever going to be able to look for him again. Anytime _she_ left I was forced to accompany her. Despite her saying I wasn't a prisoner, it felt very much like a prison. I wasn't allowed to leave unless it was with her or Gage. She said it was for my protection, but the one time I managed to sneak out I accidentally bumped, literally, into a group of the raiders called 'Disciples'. They were angry at first, but once they realized who I was, they freaked out and ran away. I didn't know exactly, but I had a hunch it was something Seras did.

And wasn't that an entirely new can of worms. I had grown up reading stories and watching movies about vampires, but I had never expected that I'd actually _meet_ one. All of the stuff in fiction had said about them was basically all wrong. I had seen Seras go into the sun multiple times without looking any worse for wear. Through sheer luck, I managed to find some wild, mutated cousin of garlic growing in the ruins of an old greenhouse. She had simply laughed off the matter, saying that garlic hadn't affected her in over two hundred years. I'd even tested my silver necklace that Nate had given me for our one year anniversary and gotten nothing. Not even a sizzle.

"Nora," I heard Gage's gravelly voice call out from a back room. "Lunch is ready." Despite the less than preferable conditions, Gage had an uncanny knack for cooking. With an almost reluctant sigh, I stood and headed to where the food was. I needed to keep my strength for finding Shaun after all. When I walked into the dining area, a meal that wouldn't be out of place in a setting before the bombs greeted me: a well seared steak, a side of mashed potatoes with small pieces of what looked like parsley, and an honest to goodness cob of corn.

"It looks delicious." I spoke truthfully.

"The meat is Deathclaw and the potatoes are instamash that I dolled up with some spices. Don't know where they got the corn, though." He spoke through a mouthful of food. I sat down at my place across from Gage and picked up my fork and knife. The first piece of the steak I cut out revealed that it was cooked to medium well.

The meal was delicious, save for the corn, which had a funky taste to it. I left the remainder of the cob on the plate, having finished everything but. I reclined back into the chair, a small smile on my face, content to enjoy post-food satisfaction. That dream was broken when the elevator dinged and in walked Seras. As I did my best to ignore her, she and Gage spoke in hushed tones. Gage gave a single nod and hurried out to the outdoor lift that lead to the ground level.

"Come with me, I have something to discuss with the leaders then we are heading to the Commonwealth." Seras spoke neutrally. I blinked, wondering whether I had heard her correctly.

"You mean I'm going to be free?" Seras shot me a small smirk.

"You were never a prisoner. Just because one group of Disciples knew who you were doesn't mean that all of them would. And that's to say nothing of the Pack and their pit fights or the Operators and their unethical experiments." She replied seriously in a tone that almost made me believe her.

I gathered as much sarcastic energy as I could and said "yeah, sure."

Fifteen minutes later we were near the market of Nuka Town. We being myself, Gage, Seras, and the leaders of the three raider gangs. The look that the dude from the pack was giving me made me uncomfortable, so I placed Seras between us. Nisha, on the other hand, was looking literally everywhere except me, as if I were a Gorgon that could turn her to stone.

"Okay, now the reason that I've gathered you all here is because I am leaving for a short while. I have some business in the Commonwealth that I need to resolve and then I will be back here. It shouldn't take more than a week, but until I return Gage is in charge. One other thing I wanted to assign was the remaining territories. Nisha," Seras motioned to the woman with a spiky metal helmet. "you and the Disciples get the Dry Rock Gulch. Mason," Next was the shirtless guy with blue paint on his chest. "you and the Pack get the Safari Adventure area. Mags," lastly was the sanest looking person of the group. "you and the Operators get the power plant. I expect that all of you will be working to clear your zones of detritus and, in the case of the Operators, getting the plant up and running."

"Why do they get the larger zones and we only get one single building?" Mags asked hesitantly.

"Save for Nuka Town itself, the power plant is the most important structure in the entire park." Seras answered. Mags floundered for a moment before accepting her words and retreating a step. "Now, if there are no other questions then you are dismissed. Mags, I need you to stay behind for a moment, however." Mason and Nisha all but ran back to their respective parts of the park while Mags slowly moved towards Seras, as if any sudden movement would trigger some kind of trap.

"What's wrong, boss?"

"I didn't wish to say this in front of them, but your group is easily the most intelligent and tech savvy. Had I left the power plant to either of them before leaving for a week or more I would expect absolutely nothing to be done towards restoring it. I trust you can get the job done?" Seras leaned in towards Mags, causing the latter to shift uncomfortably.

"Yes ma'am." Mags nodded vigorously.

"Good. You are dismissed." Seras motioned for me to follow her and before I could even blink Mags was sprinting back towards her part of Nuka Town. "I've taken the liberty of having everything that you came here with packed into a duffel bag and placed at the train station." She spoke to me without looking backwards. We passed by several collared slaves, the mere sight of them making my stomach turn and my hatred for Seras to renew.

"Why are you going to the Commonwealth?" I asked with barely restrained anger. Practically every time I had spoken to Seras about the raiders and the slaves, she had brushed it off. She claimed to be on the side of morality, but I had yet to see that at all from her.

"You have to find your son, don't you?" She asked me rhetorically, as if the answer was so obvious that I should have known it. The problem was, that I hadn't once mentioned my son to her or Gage. "By the way, vampires can read minds." She added with a soft chuckle. I blanched, any feeling of privacy I had now gone.

We spent most of the remainder of our trip in silence. It almost didn't seem real. I had spent the last few days dwelling in a miasma of anger at my own innocence, at Seras for keeping me trapped, and at the raiders for setting up that death trap of a gauntlet. She was the first to speak.

"If you have any questions, now is the time to speak them." She handed me my bag and stepped off onto the platform.

I growled, unable to help my sarcastic reply "Why don't you just read my mind? You seem to be good at that." After snatching my bag with far more force than necessary, I headed up the partially caved in stairs that lead to the surface of the western Commonwealth.

"The only reason I know of your son is because you thought of him in our first encounter. I have yet to actually read your mind after that. The only reason I knew what you were going to ask was that look of confusion on your face." I pondered her explanation for a moment, supposing that it did make sense. Though I was still uncertain on several points.

"You said I wasn't a prisoner, yet why did you wait so long to bring me back here?" I asked as we passed the Federal Ration Stockpile. I was making a beeline towards Cambridge, where Danse had been waiting for me. I told him a week ago that I would be joining the Brotherhood as soon as I had made a pit stop home. Then my Pipboy picked up that damnable broadcast. By my estimate, we should reach him a couple hours before nightfall.

"I still had things that needed to be done before I could take a leave of absence. Now, Nuka World can survive for the time we are gone." Was Seras' easy reply. That was understandable, but I was still irked at her for not being completely honest with me.

Something stuck with me, however. "We?" I ducked under a dilapidated fence as we crossed a burned out farmstead.

"You're the first person I've met in almost ten years that isn't a complete psychopath, a raider, a feral ghoul, or a Corsair," She said with an almost sad tone, then added "though the first and last aren't mutually exclusive." I was about to speak, but she held her hand out. "Get down." A protest started to leave my lips, but then I saw them: green clad humanoids about fifty feet ahead of our position. A dozen gunners were spread out, combing through the sparse grain field with a sentry bot bringing up the rear.

Seras had a grim look on her face, as she held her right arm to the side. Said arm slowly darkened and shifted into what looked like a long, jagged sword. Wordlessly, she swung her arm in an arc aimed towards where the gunners were. I heard several screams of pain and a loud, metallic crash. As quickly as it appeared, Seras' arm returned to normal, before she pulled out a very large silver handgun. I followed behind her and got my first look at the damage she unleashed.

The bodies of the gunners, some of which were still alive, had been cut cleanly in half. The sentry bot that had been pulling up the rear suffered the same fate. Without any hesitation, Seras calmly put a single bullet into the head of each of the gunners. The complete ease at how she had eliminated a heavily armed patrol of gunners shocked me.

"Jesus Christ," I muttered under my breath as I took in the scene of carnage.

This remark got the first genuine laugh I had heard from the vampire. "Quite the opposite, I'm afraid."


	5. Chapter 5

Nora looted the Gunners, procuring what was essentially an armory's worth of guns and ammo among other supplies, and we moved on shortly after. I offered to carry them for her, but she said that she wanted to do it herself. She told me that she would trade them to the Brotherhood for caps and other items. We were nearly at the Cambridge Police station where Nora's liaison to the Brotherhood, one 'Paladin' Danse was. I had mostly stuck to the south central and south east part of America during the last fifty years after returning from Mexico, and hadn't heard much news on this particular faction. Something about it did have an almost imperceptible familiarity to it though.

"We're here." Nora called out breathlessly as we arrived at what looked to be a fortified brick and mortar building. There were around half a dozen heavily armed and armored people milling around the perimeter of the compound. They were using what looked like a newer version of the power armor that Colter had been wearing when I tore out his heart. I doubted it would put up much more resistance than his had.

"Fancy armor." I noted as we were waived inside, one of the guards giving me a sidelong glance.

"Power armor, energy weapons, you name it they got it. Even have a huge blimp near the airport." Nora explained as she adjusted her hoard.

"It's not a blimp, it's an airship." One of the male members of the Brotherhood corrected from the doorway to the police station. He had his helmet off, revealing a rugged, if handsome, man. Though the hood he had on detracted from it.

"Psh, I know, Danse. Just teasin' ya." Nora gave a short chuckle and knocked a fist into the armored chest of Danse. Something was off about him. His blood smelled wrong. I couldn't place it exactly, but it was vastly different than a normal human.

Danse cleared his throat. "Yes, well. It's a good thing you're here, recruit. Elder Maxson wants to meet with you. Your, ah," He spared me a brief glance. "companion, is of course welcome to accompany you." That name struck a chord with me. Maxson. The only Maxson I knew was in California and had likely been dead for over a hundred fifty years.

Then it clicked. Roger Maxson was the man I had crossed paths with him just after the bombs dropped. He had been leading a large group of people to some bunker and lost his wife about a month before I met him. I helped him get through the four month journey to the bunker before I departed for South America, following up a lead on Alucard. Roger had been the first human that I had ever met that hadn't outright thought I was lying or hated me when I told them what I was. He was also the first man I had grown to love since Pip. I hated leaving him, even more so once I had gotten to my destination some years later.

The lead had turned out to be a bust and it had taken me nearly a hundred years to make the round trip between Argentina and Texas. Knowing that Roger was likely dead, I settled down, spending about thirty years in a town. Both protecting it from those who wished it harm and helping to take care of its needs. They had, unfortunately, run me off once they realized I wasn't aging.

"Seras?" Nora called out from the doorway.

"Sorry, I just got lost in thought." I actually felt a bit embarrassed at having been caught flat footed like that. Nora fixed me a small smile. "Well, c'mon. The Vertibird is waiting on us." She had seemingly unloaded her hefty baggage during my internal musings. A short walk found us on the roof of the building, with a VTOL spinning up on the helipad. I felt a small spur of nostalgia as I stepped onto the Vertibird, fond memories of my days in Hellsing taking trips via helicopter. The VTOL was leaps and bounds better, Nora, obviously no stranger to having ridden in one of these things, was sitting at the side mounted turret.

The journey to the airship that Danse called the 'Prydwen' was short, less than a five minute flight. We met with a man called Lancer Captain Kells who directed us up a short staircase into the ship proper.

As we approached a viewing room, I saw him. If my heart hadn't stopped nearly three centuries prior to this, I would have said that it skipped a beat. This Elder was practically the spitting image of Roger, if a bit younger than when I had met him. Emotional wounds I didn't even know I still had opened up. I was speechless, and practically on the verge of tears. Nora had yet to notice my plight, too enamored by the speech that he was giving.

"I don't believe it." I whispered softly.

"What seems to be the problem?" The familiar voice of Danse spoke from nearby, making me jump. I turned to see him, in his full suit of power armor, standing there giving me an inquisitive look. How he had snuck up on me I'll never know.

"I- I'm sorry, it's just that your Elder looks like someone I knew a long time ago. Someone I was fond of." I told him, turning back to stare at Nora and this new Maxson as they talked. Danse waited around for a moment longer, before realizing that I had nothing left to say to him, and clomped off to do something else nearby. Nora turned to me and waved me over, completely oblivious to my internal turmoil. A bit reluctantly, I composed myself and headed over to her and the Elder.

"Seras, this is Elder Maxson, though he told me his real name is Arthur." Nora explained. Unable to help myself, I barely kept in a snort of laughter.

"Is something funny?" the Elder asked incredulously, making Nora blanch.

"No, it's just," I let out a sigh of amusement. "Did you name the ship or was it someone else with a copy of the 'Culhwch and Olwen' handy?" He relaxed almost immediately at the realization that I understood what his ship meant. "Though I'm left wondering who down there in the Commonwealth takes on the role of the Ysbaddaden?"

A small smile appeared on the Elder's face. "That would be whomever is leading the group known as the Institute." A resurgence of emotion threatened to overwhelm me at seeing the smile. I had seen that same smile on Roger many times. It was all too much to bear. I needed time to think things over.

"Um, it's been nice meeting you and all, but do you have a lavatory? I'm feeling a bit sick after the Vertibird ride." I lied easily. It was the cowardly thing to do, but just looking at this Maxson was forcing feelings I had thought long since dead to come shooting back to the surface and threatening to overwhelm me.

"Sure, it's one level up the ladder, down the stairs on the right." He spoke without hesitation. Clearly he was the master of his own ship. I nodded my thanks and hurried off, leaving behind a somewhat confused Nora. The bathroom was right where he said it was, though it wasn't exactly a private one. It did have stalls, which I policed one and all but threw myself in there. Despite trying my hardest to not to, bloody tears leaked out.

So I sat, and sobbed, for an indeterminate amount of time. I already regretted coming here. Pip had told me to never let go of what makes me human. I had honored his words for as long as I could, but there was only so much turmoil I could withstand. So I pushed it down, fully embracing being a vampire and all its perks. Then Roger came, and he had shown me that it wasn't so bad opening up. The short time I had spent with him was one of the happiest things I had done in the time after Hellsing. I had completely forgotten that in the years between, writing him off as dead and done, once more embracing my heritage. Until today. Today, that had all been thrown out the window. The vampire part of me wanted to burn it all, reduce this 'Brotherhood' and all its people to scrap and ash. The newly reasserted human side wanted nothing more than to run to this new Maxson and confess everything. I hated both.

"Seras?" I heard Nora's voice call out tentatively. "I swear I heard crying." Reluctantly, I pushed open the stall to reveal Nora, now donning a spiffy looking gray jumpsuit. "That was you?" She asked in disbelief. "Why?"

"One of Arthur's relatives, great grandfather I'm guessing since they share the same last name, was a close friend of mine just after the bombs. We parted ways and I never saw him again. That man in there is the spitting image of him and it dredged up some feelings that I thought I had gotten over." Even as I spoke them, the words left a bitter taste in my mouth. The vampire side of me was gaining precedence in my mind, along with the urge to snuff the life out of something too.

Nora didn't say anything, but the distraught look on her face told me that she understood. I wiped my eyes and pushed past her. "I'm getting out of here. Before I do something that I regret." I had managed to make it all the way to the ladder before Nora caught up to me.

"Wait!" She called out. "What do you mean 'before you do something you regret'?" I didn't have to tell her a thing. I could have kept walking and there was nothing Nora could do. But the human side of me told me that I needed to talk to someone about this, before the feelings festered and I did something that I would actually regret. So it was with a reluctant sigh that I turned to face her.

"Part of me wants nothing more than to go to the Arthur, which I know is completely ridiculous. Another part of me wants nothing more than to destroy this entire ship and everyone on it, to purge the unwanted feelings from my mind." Nora blanched, but otherwise didn't interrupt me. "I'm choosing to do neither and instead am leaving to go turn some raiders or super mutants into paste."

With that out of the way, I made my way out to a small platform that overlooked the airport. Nora followed me to the doorway, but otherwise remained silent. I spared one last look back at her and then jumped. Falling several hundred feet to the ground wasn't exactly difficult, but the impact still rattled me. Thankfully, it didn't seem like anyone had seen my fall, so I quickly dusted myself off and started walking. The dark clouds that had been building up over the last hour or so finally released their payload in the form of a pounding, cold rain.

The downpour was a mild hinderance to my sight, but nothing that I couldn't overcome. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to pick out the heavy, rapid sound of a super mutant heartbeat or the slow, methodical rhythm of a human. Rain after the apocalypse had played Hell on my senses. In the early days, it was because of the radiation, but now it was just inconvenient. A few moments later, I heard it. A powerful heartbeat, almost sounding like war drums, that signified the presence of one or more super mutants. Not the easiest to consume, but over the years I had adapted well. I withdrew my senses and started forward. Even through the constant din of rainfall, I could hear their warbled grunts and guttural language. The thought of a meal, even a super mutant, spurred me forward.

"Puny human!" A mutant yelled to my right, surprising me. It swung a large sledgehammer at me, hard enough to rattle me as I caught it. The mutant seemed confused as he tried to pull its weapon back, only to find that I wasn't letting go.

"Puny human!" I mocked in a childish voice as I crushed the wooden handle of the hammer. It recovered quickly from the sudden loss of its weapon, moving to stab me with the splintered handle. I batted it aside, raised a boot, and kicked it in the chest. It flew backwards, through a brick wall. I stepped through the newly made hole to see the mutant coughing up blood.

"Brothers will kill you human!" It grumbled breathlessly. Grabbing its throat, I pulled it up to eye level with me, drinking in the sudden fear that it felt.

"Let them come," I whispered with a smirk of satisfaction, before sinking my teeth into its neck.


	6. Chapter 6

The corpses of around thirty super mutants lay dead in varying states of dismemberment and exsanguination. My little fight hadn't helped me make a decision about the Elder one way or another, but it had ben incredibly cathartic. It had been several hours since I left the Brotherhood's blimp, and the rain had not let up in the slightest. The downpour had begun to pool in low areas around the street and inside this shoddy building that I had performed my massacre. The not-quite dry blood was carried away by the water, turning what little remained of Boston's drainage system into a red river. Normally I would mourn the loss, but I had more than gotten my fill from the simple minded mutants.

The sound of nearby gunfire drew my attention. Most of these mutants had been using varying melee implements, and what few guns that were laying around were semi-auto or bolt action. The gunfire I was hearing now was a shotgun of some kind. I pulled the leather hood of my duster over my head and headed into the downpour. As I neared the source of the fighting, I pulled out the Casull and confirmed that it was fully loaded. Despite being nearly three centuries old, it looked relatively clean. A few of the more critical pieces had to be replaced, often times hand produced if I was unable to find a suitable substitute. My meticulous maintenance of the firearm had done most of the work in ensuring its condition, and the hand loaded ammo that I created worked just as well as anything made by Hellsing.

The hoarse growl of a feral ghoul drew my gaze. It was ragged, what little scraps of clothing it wore barely hanging on. The monstrosity was currently feasting ravenously on the remains of a radroach. I started to raise the Casull, before deciding not to waste a bullet on the pitiful creature. It looked up as I approached, started to raise one of its spindly arms to attack me, before falling backwards as a punch took off its head.

I always felt bad for the feral ghouls. My opinion might be biased because of the fact that vampires can create ghouls similar to them, but regardless it was still an awful thing to have happen. Normal ghouls, while rather grotesque to look at, at least have the ability to choose whether or not they want to be damned to an existence of undeath.

I heard the gunfire begin to slow down, so I hurried outside. Down the street, I saw a feral charge across the broken road into a building, before being blasted back by a shotgun of some kind. Where it fell, three more took its place and sped into the same entryway that their ally had taken. I took off in a sprint, hoping that whoever was firing wouldn't shoot me as well. Not that it would hurt, it would just be rather unpleasant and I'd rather avoid it if I could. In the entryway, I saw the three ghouls clawing madly at a closed door. Knowing that the Casull would simply overpenetrate the thin wall, I picked up a nearby piece of rebar and used that to decapitate all three ghouls.

The rebar clanged loudly as I tossed it aside. "It's safe to come out now." I called out over the steadily declining din of rain. The door opened a crack, an eye peeking at me.

He stared at me suspiciously for a few seconds before his eyes widened in alarm. "My brother!" He exclaimed and rushed out the door and up the stairs to my left. I tucked the Casull away and followed him. Halfway up, I heard the familiar throaty growl of a feral and a scream of pain. When I turned the corner I saw the man from earlier pinned against the wall, barely holding off the feral, and a boy of about ten laying on the ground a few feet away, clutching a nasty gash on his arm.

I ran over and put the feral in a headlock, allowing the man to get away. Careful not to show them too much of my strength, I acted like I was struggling with it, before finally snapping its neck. The corpse of the feral collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The man I had saved practically melted with relief, before moving to assist his brother. The wound looked nasty, and despite it being from a feral bite, I smelled no infection on it. At least not yet. I moved towards the boy, reaching for the first aid kit I had managed to salvage in the aftermath of my rampage, when the older brother moved to block me. He fixed me with a firm glare.

"I was just going to treat his wound. It may not be that bad now, but it could get infected easily. I have a first aid kit here." I patted my satchel twice for emphasis. He eyed it suspiciously before moving aside. The boy approached me swiftly, having overheard the conversation and eager to get his wound cleaned. Something told me that this wasn't the first time he and his brother had run into ferals. Now that I had a closer look at it, I could tell that the bite was not as bad as I initially thought it to be. Where I had thought that the ghoul had taken a chunk of flesh off, it had simply bitten down and then released the boy, leaving a somewhat clean wound. It would undoubtedly get infected if left untreated, but I had enough supplies to ensure that wouldn't come to pass.

"What's your name?" I asked as I gently dabbed the wound clean with a bottle of distilled water and some sterile gauze I had found in a medical box.

"Michael." He replied, wincing every time the gauze met his wound.

I gave him a small, comforting smile. "Well, Michael, my name is Seras." I discarded the bloody gauze, capped the water, and pulled out a bottle of disinfectant with another, fresh gauze pad. "Now, I'm gonna be honest. This is going to sting." I waited a moment for him to prepare and then poured a modicum of the alcohol onto the wound. The boy hissed as the disinfectant went to work, white bubbles forming in the teeth marks on his arm. I let it sit for a moment before wiping it away with the pad. After repeating the action once more, I opened a third pad, pressed it to the wound, and wrapped his arm with adhesive gauze that had also been in the kit.

Once I had packed away all of my stuff, I was surprised by a fierce hug from the young boy. "Thank you" he spoke appreciatively, before hurrying off to an adjacent room.

"That's the first time I've seen him smile since mom died." The older brother commented in a somber voice. He breathed out a heavy sigh. "My uh," He paused an extended a hand in greeting. "My name's Marcus." The sudden boom of thunder cut off any reply I could make.

"Maybe we should talk in a safer area," I noted as I saw the roof leaking in a couple places. Marcus nonverbally agreed as he headed into the area where his little brother went. Inside, Michael was reading a comic book, a rather dilapidated copy of Grognak. A glance upward revealed that the roof here was much more secure than in the hallway. As Marcus spoke with his brother in a soft whisper, I took the opportunity to give the older brother a once over. He was tall, not too muscular, and held himself in a confident manner. A smile made its way to my face as I realized that I found the perfect way to let off steam.

"There's an adjacent room that's more private." Marcus's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked back to the younger brother and he had turned in for the night. Marcus led me through a closed door into a much more spacious room. He sat down on the queen sized bed, licking his lips nervously. I took a spot beside him, wincing internally as the bed creaked. "So uh," He turned towards me, head facing downward as if he was afraid to look me in the eyes. Well that wouldn't do. "What did-" I cut him off with a kiss on the lips, relishing in the light warmth I felt.

A few moments later, I broke away, smirking at the dumbstruck look on Marcus's face. "W-wow." He stammered at my forwardness. "I uh," It seemed that I had caused him to become speechless, so I took the initiative once more.

"You don't have to say anything." I moved to straddle him, smirking at the way his eyes widened. "Not if you don't want to." After pushing him over, I leaned in for a more ravenous kiss.

The next hour flew by in an ecstasy-filled blur. By the time I came down, the rain had stopped completely. The old sheets that were on the bed barely covered the both of us. I was unable to help the goofy smile that seemed plastered on my face after being thoroughly satisfied for what seemed like the first time in decades. Unexpectedly, I felt Marcus's hand grasp mine. His smile mirrored my own.

"I'm sorry, I just," He let out a short laugh. "I was just making sure that you were real and not some fever dream." Unable to help it, I guffawed at his statement. I suppose that from his eyes what had just happened could be considered a dream: an attractive blonde woman saves you and your brother then proceeds to shag you.

"Very real," I replied with a genuine smile, which promptly faded as the weight of my responsibilities came crashing down. Marcus noticed my sudden solemnity.

"What's wrong? Did I do some-"

I cut him off with a half-hearted laugh. "No, you were great." An explosive sigh left my lips. "I guess I just realized that running away from my problems doesn't solve anything." I stood up and grabbed my shirt, smirking at the way Marcus averted his eyes. "After what we just did I figured that you were beyond averting your gaze."

"That was in the heat of the moment, though. Now I'd feel like a pervert for looking." He replied after a moment. He reminded me of Roger in a way. Chivalrous to a fault.

"I'm gonna be honest. This is probably going to be the last time we see each other." I admitted to him. Before I could say anything else, an image flashed in my mind's eye. It was of Marcus and Michael, laying on the ground, bloody and shot full of holes. As soon as the vision left me, I heard the familiar sound of the VTOL aircraft that the Brotherhood used. Alucard told me that his lineage was gifted with foresight, but I had not actually experienced such a thing until now. I didn't exactly know how, but I knew that if they stayed here then my premonition would come to pass. I also couldn't shake the feeling that they were here for me. Having them here would only complicate things.

"You need to get dressed, take your brother, and leave out the back." I told him seriously. He started to voice a protest, but I interrupted him. "Just do it!" I hissed, hurriedly getting dressed myself in preparation for what was to come. To my surprise, he had already dressed and was reloading his shotgun by the time I finished dressing. The clanking of power armor broke the silence.

"There's big metal guys outside," Michael called out from the doorway. "I think it those Brotherhood people."

"Listen!" I gripped Marcus by the shoulders and looked him square in the eyes. "You and your brother _need_ to get out of here. I can distract the Brotherhood long enough for you to slip away."

He shook out of my grasp. "'Distract'? What are you talking about? The Brotherhood are the good guys."

An exasperated sigh left my lips. "I have a bad feeling about them. And I'm never wrong about my bad feelings." The man stared into my eyes for a moment more, eventually accepting what I said.

"Alright, but if it looks like you can't handle it, then get out of there." There was nothing that they could throw at me that I couldn't handle, but I couldn't let him know that.

"When you get to safety, head northwest. A friend of mine told me that there was a friendly settlement. You and your brother will be safe there." I told him right before moving to open the door that led back into the hallway. The two brothers were right behind me, and once I made sure the coast was clear, I hurried them towards the back door of the building. After parting ways with only a nod, I started towards the front where the Brotherhood would be.

Once outside, I saw them. Spread out in a semicircle were half a dozen of the familiar looking armored soldiers I had seen aboard the Prydwen. The leader held up a fist and the troop stopped walking. "Are you Seras?" The leader asked, his tone neutral and not betraying any emotion. I couldn't exactly place why, but I felt deep down that I couldn't trust this 'Brotherhood'.

"Cut the pomp and tell me what you want. You obviously followed me out here, and no one brings six soldiers of this caliber for a simple extraction mission." My calm and confident mask slid back on as easily as it came off aboard the Brotherhood's vessel. If they were unnerved by my forwardness, they didn't show it.

As one, they all raised their weapons and pointed them towards me. "By order of Elder Maxson, you are to be summarily executed for your status as an abomination and an affront to the human race."

I could almost laugh. "'Abomination?'" I asked skeptically. It was obvious that someone in the Brotherhood had seen my little display with the Super Mutants. Unfortunate, but I hadn't exactly been subtle when I was literally throwing around the green mutants like children's toys.

The venom in the lead soldier's tone of voice shocked me. "You and your ilk, byproducts of the nuclear Armageddon that ravaged the Earth. Super Mutants, ghouls, irradiated creatures, synths. All abominations that must be scoured from the world."

I was floored by his statement. _This_ is what Roger's organization had become? And the elder, his own descendant no less, had supported this endeavor? After a few seconds of silence, it seemed like they were done talking. So I gave them an ultimatum. "Listen. I'm giving you _one_ chance: leave, return to your ship, and tell your elder to never send anyone after me again."

Their weapons glowed ominously, obviously not taking my threat seriously. With a disappointed sigh, I spoke. "Very well. If you insist on this farce of an execution, allow me to show you exactly how outclassed you really are." Deciding to throw subtlety out the window, I dispelled the illusion over my shadow arm and formed it into a sword. "By the way," I added on a whim. "I existed on this planet long before the bombs destroyed its surface." I raised my sword and took a runner's stance. "And I will continue to exist long after your 'Brotherhood' fades into distant memory."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** I know it's rather soon after the previous upload, but I got inspired and really found my metaphorical writing groove. Next thing I knew, I had another chapter written. So, here you go.

* * *

The half-dozen power armored humans stood still, as if waiting for me to make the first move. My sword was practically quivering with excitement at the taste of _human_ blood being so close after so many months of gorging on nothing but fauna and mutants. "Well what are you waiting for? You spoke so succinctly about how I was nothing more than something to be put down. Where did all that bravado go?" At the word 'bravado', they simultaneously opened fire on me. The whole 'taking damage to intimidate my enemies' bit was more Alucard's thing than mine, so rather than eat all of their weapon's fire, I opted to simply vanish into shadows and reappear on the second floor of a nearby building balcony.

"Cease fire!" The leader shouted, apparently the first one to realize that I had disappeared. I was disappointed in their lack of situational awareness. Had I actually been trying they never would have even gotten the chance to shoot me.

"You know" I called out to the cadre. "Your attempt on my life is almost depressing. Therefore, I've decided that if you survive against my pet, then I'll allow you to go back to your 'Brotherhood' in peace. If you don't…" I trailed off, shooting the soldiers a sly smirk. "Well, that's not exactly _my_ problem. Is it?" The Brotherhood soldiers moved to fire on me once more, only hesitating when the ground started rumbling.

"What the Hell is that?" A female soldier called out. About ten meters down the road, the ground exploded upward as what looked like the largest Mirelurk Queen in existence emerged. The most notable differences were that this one had pitch-black carapace, glowing red eyes, and stood half again as tall as the average Queen. It also was more armored than its mortal counterpart, meaning that the Brotherhood stood practically no chance against it with their current weaponry.

"Bloodrage Queen!" The leader shouted and opened fire. The rest of his squad followed suit, making the Queen roar in anger. I could feel the impact of their weapons on its shell, not even causing enough damage to produce pain. The Queen reared up and slammed her claws into the ground, creating a massive shockwave that sent the Brotherhood reeling. The impact also collapsed two nearby buildings, causing a massive dust cloud to form. To my delight, the glowing red eyes of my pet were still visible through the cloud. Another shrill bellow sounded and the earth shook as the Queen charged.

Upon seeing the massive black figure emerge from the dust, the leader shouted "Fall back!" I leapt to the next building, knowing that they couldn't outrun my pet.

"Try not to rough them up too much," I called out to the Queen. "After all, they can't be good snacks if they're flattened." My shout was more to the Brotherhood than it was to my pet, as I didn't need to speak to communicate with it. They quickly realized that they weren't going to get away, so they turned and started firing, with surprising accuracy, at the Queen's exposed face. Their fire only served to antagonize my pet further, the hits feeling more like mosquito bites than bullet and laser wounds. The first victim of my pet was one of the soldiers that was just a bit too far forward compared to their companions. They caught a claw to the side and were flung bodily into a nearby building, smashing through the brickwork and drywall.

Smirking as the Queen's first victim was taken, I moved closer to the action. My good mood was suddenly snuffed out by a shout from the downed Brotherhood member. "AD VICTORIAM!" The dying man yelled with a pained cry, followed up by a massive explosion as the building where he had crashed. It set the Queen reeling, the heat and blast wave from the explosion washing over her and causing her to fall into a building in the opposite side of the street. She wasn't even close to dead, but the revelation that the soldier had _suicide bombed_ my pet was both disturbing and upsetting.

"That's it." I growled and stood from my spot, staring down at my recovering Queen that was still taking fire from the remaining soldiers. "Put your toys away. We're going home." The gunfire ceased as they all turned to look at me, seemingly in disbelief. "And to be clear I mean kill them all, so I can eat them and find something better to do." The soldiers, wisely, turned and fled, taking advantage of the opening that their suicidal companion gave them. The Queen let out a massive, disorienting shriek, causing the Brotherhood troops to stumble. Sadly though, by the time my pet freed itself, the Brotherhood had already made it a good distance away. Deciding to remain true to my word about letting them go if they survived, I recalled the Queen and moved to examine the crater where her first, and sadly only victim's body lay.

It was little more than charcoal at this point; utterly unsalvageable. Not even a mote of sustenance could be taken from it at all. The residual radiation from the explosion was making my skin tingle. I wasn't worried, as I had consumed the blood of innumerable irradiated creatures in the past with no repercussions. Despite having fed very well only a few hours prior, the possibility of genuine human blood had set my appetite wanting. If only there were more of those green armored humans nearby. They were both stupid and squishy enough to easily consume. Plus I doubted that they could self-destruct to deny me my prize. Come to think of it, didn't Nora say that these 'Gunners' had a main base of operations in the southwest? A grin split my face as I decided on my new destination.

Nora P.O.V

It had been several hours since Seras had left and I was, despite knowing that there was likely nothing left on Earth capable of killing her, worried. I had heard her name mentioned several times in passing by various members of the Brotherhood and anytime I asked, they fed me some bullshit line about how it was 'Brotherhood-only' business. I mean, I was an initiate in their damn organization for fucks sake, how could they not tell me? Currently I was waiting in Danse's personal quarters, having been sent here by Lancer-Captain Kells after he had gotten tired of people complaining about my questioning. The rain had been stopped for a while now, leaving me wondering why we had not departed for Fort Strong. I let out an exasperated sigh as I used my Pipboy to sort through my inventory for what felt like the hundredth time.

The door suddenly hissing open gave me a start. Elder Maxson walked in, flanked by two armored, masked Brotherhood soldiers. They were Paladins, if I read the insignias on their shoulders right. "Hey, I was wondering when-" He cut me off, grabbing me by the neck of my shirt and lifting me up. He was practically fuming with anger, and from the way my back slammed hard into the wall, I was the source of it.

"What the Hell did you bring onto my ship!?" He bellowed madly.

"Uhm, what?" I asked confusedly. Apparently that wasn't the right thing to say, as he slammed me into the wall again, this time making me wince in pain.

"Don't play stupid!" He yelled. "Your friend, Seras. What the Hell is she?" I gulped nervously. It seemed like her secret was out, and not in a good way either.

"She's a vampire." I rasped, slightly winded from his second hit. "She said she was a vampire." This didn't seem to satisfy the Elder, as he threw me against the wall, this time letting go. The hit knocked the wind out of me, sending me to the floor in a coughing fit. "I'm not lying!" I gasped. "She said she was-," Bile nearly rose in my throat at a particularly vicious cough. Through tear-blurred eyes, I saw the Elder and his two companions exit the room, and a third armored Brotherhood member enter. I could vaguely see Danse's familiar form enter and move to help me up. My coughing fit had calmed down to ragged gasps, and I whispered a thanks to my friend.

"I didn't know the Elder was going to be so… forceful. I apologize." Came his soothing voice. About ten seconds later, I was recovered enough to sit on Danse's bed.

"What happened?" Was my weak-voiced question to seemingly the only person I could now trust on this ship.

He almost seemed hesitant, but eventually he said "Your friend uh-" He cleared his throat. "She attacked a patrol of ours using some incredibly large Mirelurk Queen, killing one of them. Before he succumbed to his wounds, Knight Lucius detonated his armor, both to distract her and the Mirelurk and to buy time for his brothers and sisters to escape." At face value his words seemed honest, but from what I knew of Seras told me that had she actually wanted to kill that patrol, they wouldn't have gotten away with only one casualty let alone at all. Danse had never told me a lie in the weeks that I had known him, so it was likely that whoever told _him_ was the liar.

I didn't want to jeopardize Danse any more than I likely already had, so I decided to play along with the lie he had been told. "That's uh. I knew that she was a vampire, but-" I trailed off, letting him infer what he wanted from my statement.

"I'm sorry, soldier." He placed a massive hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. "You trusted her, and she betrayed you. That can't be easy to deal with."

"Thanks Danse." I shot him a half smile and stood up. "So um, when do we leave for Fort Strong?" I asked, hoping to get my mind off of the drama within the Brotherhood.

"Um," He started. "The Elder has postponed all nonessential missions until your f-" Danse coughed in an attempt to cover his mistake. "Seras has been hunted down and brought to justice." I couldn't imagine _that_ going well for the Brotherhood. I had seen her sword-arm-thing slice through a dozen armored Gunners _and_ a Sentry Bot with practically no difficulty. I doubt that their T-60 armor was in any better condition to resist her sword.

"In that case do you think I could get a ride back to Sanctuary? I kinda need time to process what's happened." The best lies are always half-truths. I truly did need time to process what happened, but I also wanted to be off this damn ship so I could start looking for Seras. It felt awful lying to Danse, but I couldn't risk him losing his position in the Brotherhood. He truly cared for the organization and was practically a walking, talking, poster boy for everything they stood for.

He smiled warmly, "Sure, let's go see if we can convince one of the pilots to do it." With that we headed out of his room and towards the docking area.


	8. Chapter 8

**Nora POV**

It's been three days since I last saw Seras, though I had certainly seen the results of her work. The Gunners at Galaxy News were wiped out, literally, to the last man. I had never seen MacCready so happy, yet so disappointed. The latter emotion stemming from not being there to witness or participate in their deaths. The drained and desiccated corpses I had found there were proof enough that it was her handiwork.

The Minutemen scouts had heard reports of a massive black Mirelurk Queen sporadically throughout the Commonwealth, and the Brotherhood had been hot on its heels. It almost seemed like a game of tag: Seras would pop up in one spot, make some noise, then the Brotherhood would come flying in trying to find her. I had a squad of Minutemen posted in the hills to the north of the path that lead back to the Nuka Transit Center in case she went that way, but she never did. I was starting to get worried. Worried that the Institute would take an interest in her. Worried that she would hurt someone innocent. Worried that, as much as they had gotten on my nerves recently, she would finally destroy the Brotherhood.

And wasn't that a problematic thought in and of itself. Something with not only the means, but the motive to wipe out the Brotherhood of Steel. I heard from rumors that they did a lot of good in the D.C. area before coming here, which was strange considering how… angry it seemed like Maxson was at anything he deemed 'unnatural'. Danse had said that even non-feral ghouls were subject to the Brotherhood's wrath. Pretty much every ghoul I had met that wasn't trying to eat me had been at the very least amicable. Not necessarily friendly per se, but they were basically normal humans.

The Castle lacked the usual hustle and bustle of Minuteman operations, mostly because I had sent everyone who was able on patrol looking for Seras. I wanted to find her before the Brotherhood did, mainly to avoid any further bloodshed and to fix whatever caused this sudden disappearing act that she had pulled. She mentioned that the current Elder looked like someone she had been close with in the past, one of the Elder's progenitors.

Had it really affected her that much? From the short interaction I had with her aboard the Prydwen, it seemed that she was for lack of a better word 'unused' to feeling normal emotions. Maybe she overreacted and left to sort out her own feelings? Somehow I get the feeling that the current Brotherhood wasn't living up to the standards that Seras had. The situations was likely to get infinitely worse if she found out that he was, to put it bluntly, a bigot. She didn't seem the type to abide by bigotry in any form.

"Still no word on your girlfriend, General." I heard the familiar voice of Preston Garvey from behind me. He had taken to calling Seras that in pretty much every interaction we had about her. At first it had been annoying, but I had grown used to that moniker.

"From what a certain guy at Sanctuary told me, she doesn't exactly swing that way." I retorted. "Neither do I, for that matter." I flipped the switch on the display, shutting the holographic map down. It was a gem that had taken a week to excavate from Fort Hagen, but it had been well worth it. Sensors placed around the Commonwealth that fed _real time_ data to the map. We only had a dozen sensors at the moment, and I had been working on scavenging the parts to make more from the Revere Array north of here. It had been slow going, both due to the mutants that seemed to always be infesting the place, and due to the fact that most of the proper equipment had either broken down or been salvaged long ago.

I let out an explosive sigh and stepped away from the command center. The small shack where the radio antenna had been was upgraded significantly, now able to broadcast beyond the Commonwealth even all the way up to Far Harbor. The aforementioned holomap was the central feature, with the antenna taking up one of the corners. There were several stations monitoring multiple radio frequencies that the Minutemen used: one for routine patrols, one for non-routine patrols, one for emergencies, one for artillery bombardments, and one that she had just recently set up for reports about Seras.

The last one had been the most active, with a report coming in every few hours about one of the scouts spotting her or her enormous pet. I didn't understand it. What was she hoping to accomplish by just wandering around in a seemingly aimless fashion? Was there some sort of larger scheme in play that I couldn't see?

 **Seras POV**

It had been almost painfully easy infiltrating the Prydwen. Arthur had a skeleton crew running the ship, almost all of his soldiers were out looking for me. I had also taken the opportunity to dig up all the information I could on their organization. What I found was honestly rather confusing. They elevated Roger Maxson to near deity status, revering him as not only the founder of their organization, but the greatest High Elder to ever even exist. Once I managed to pick through the flowered words and over exaggerations, I saw that there were not many factual records from that time still around. It was sad, really. They either lacked the knowledge of their founding, or had it stricken from the record.

I didn't know which was worse. I powered down the terminal, and headed for the observation deck where I knew that Arthur liked to stay. The illusion I had wrapped around me made it so that anybody I passed wouldn't notice the slightest thing off. I was effectively invisible. With a small hop I descended the ladder down one level. Through the open doorway I saw Arthur, leaning against the railing and staring out over the wasteland.

"Nice day we're having, isn't it?" I asked cordially as I moved to lean back against the railing next to him. The look of surprise was definitely worth the last few days I had spent drawing out as many of his soldiers as I could.

"Guards!" He yelled, making me scoff.

"Do you take me for a fool? Your guards cannot hear you." I took joy in his enraged expression. "No one outside of this room can hear us, and anyone looking in will see you as you were, leaning against the railing and staring out into the wasteland." I adopted a mirthful smile. "And would you relax already? If I had wanted to kill you I could have done so at any time in the last six hours I've been aboard your ship."

Arthur was far from content with the revelation, but he sighed in resignation. "Very well, do what you must and get off my ship." He purposefully faced away from me, as if it would prevent me from reading his expression.

I decided cutting to the chase was the best course of action. "Your organization. What is its ultimate goal? I don't want to hear the regurgitated drivel that you tell your soldiers. I want to hear what _you_ believe the Brotherhood exists for." I spoke concisely so as to not give him any wiggle room to try to deflect the question.

He licked his lips nervously, and remained silent for a solid ten seconds. "The Brotherhood was created to protect humanity from the dangers of technology. Energy weapons, nuclear armaments, power armor. Anything and everything that could be dangerous for the average untrained civilian to use. We appropriate it and either secure it away or use it for ourselves to make our job more efficient." An exasperated sigh left his lips. "But I believe that we are protectors of the common man. Even if that mean that we must protect them from themselves sometimes."

I hummed noncommittally. About as adequate an answer as I expected from him. "And the whole spiel that about 'abominations' and the like? I perused your archive for a while and never came across anything like that until entries starting about five years ago." I could tell that I had struck a nerve with that question, given the way that he tensed up.

"Byproducts of the Great War. Mutated creatures that are a stain upon humanity's history. They exist solely to remind humanity of their faults and mistakes of the past." Were his carefully crafted words.

That was about what I expected. "I've met ghouls and super mutants with more humanity in them than some humans. Just because they are mutants doesn't make them any less human. What Roger told me about the F.E.V. was disturbing, but just because they are byproducts of the virus does not mean they do not have the same human thoughts, emotions, and feelings that you do." He seemed to perk up when I mentioned his ancestor.

"Roger? As in Roger Maxson?" He turned and locked eyes with me for the first time since I had come here. "You knew him?" There was an almost, dare I say, wonder in his eyes that had been absent every other time I had seen them.

My smile brightened. "I ran into him about a month after his wife died. They were losing numbers due to raider attacks and I assisted in protecting them on their trip to someplace safe. I was with his group for around four months, and in that time I had grown to care for him, and him for me." I felt my voice adopt a solemn tone. "He didn't even care that I wasn't human." Unbidden, a smile formed on my face at the memory.

"What was his wife's name?" Arthur asked suddenly, prompting me to fix him with a confused look. "Everything you just said can be read about in the Codex, so I'm asking you for a bit of information that isn't on there." I conceded that he had a point, given that I had indeed read about the stuff I told him on his beloved 'Codex'.

"Isabel." I replied. "Isabel Leigh Foster-Maxson" I added her maiden name for emphasis. During our time together, we had talked about a lot. Given that he was still grieving over his wife, that was his go to topic of conversation pretty often. "She was an orthodontist, and had a miscarriage before getting together with Roger." Arthur was stood there with a surprised look on his face. No doubt he expected me to be bluffing. "Shall I continue?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

His emotions were a miasma of surprise, fear, and… happiness? "No, that won't be necessary. I believe you." He paused for a moment, as if unsure of what to say. "What was he like?"

"He was…" I hummed in thought. "He was a good man. He cared about the soldiers under his command, their families, his son, his late wife. He was also fierce in battle. I remember the time we had to detour around Fresno and we ended up in Sequoia National Park. It had been practically untouched by the bombs, only now just suffering the effects of the nuclear winter that had started. It still looked magnificent. Unfortunately it seemed that a group of raiders had the same idea and ambushed us as we were setting up camp." I let out a short laugh at the memory. "I remember that he didn't have his rifle on him, so he ripped the bumper off of a nearby car and used it as a club. He turned the tide of battle practically on his own while I defended the civilians. That was…" 'The first time we made love' went unsaid. "Despite that, he also cared about every human life he took. He saw killing as a burden, and yet nowadays people do it so wantonly they could practically make it a sporting event."

Exhaling a breathy sigh, I added. "I didn't really want to kill any of your soldiers. In fact, you'll notice that I haven't harmed a single one, aside from the one that killed himself via detonating his fusion core." Granted, in the heat of the moment I probably would have, but he didn't need to know that. Most of my banter had been just that after all. Banter. I love the chase more than the kill.

"Given the reports our scouts have sent in, and against my better judgment, I feel inclined to believe you." Arthur spoke softly.

I felt that he still didn't like me very much, so I offered an ice breaker. "If you still feel any animosity towards me, I'll let you shoot me in the head. Deal?" The way his eyes practically bulged out of their sockets nearly sent me into a giggling fit.

"That- I- um-" It seemed that I had rendered him speechless, so I opted to take my leave.

"Oh, I just remembered. You wouldn't happen to know where Nora is, would you?" I asked, shooting him a cheeky grin.

Maxson, it seemed, did indeed know where my estranged companion was. "She's at Fort Independence. That's the Minutemen headquarters." He pointed at a structure in the distance that appeared to be roughly shaped like a pentagon.

I bowed my head respectfully. "Thank you, Elder Maxson." The word 'Elder' was spoken with a small bit of mirth. I faded into the shadows, finally departing the Prydwen.


	9. Chapter 9

**Seras POV**

Nora's setup at what they called 'the Castle' was honestly one of the better organizations that I had come across save for the Brotherhood's blimp. Everyone here had a purpose, no one person wanting for something to do for too long. So when I finally revealed my presence, the poor woman that had the unfortunate timing to see me right as I did performed a double take and then fled. To their credit, not even ten seconds later I was greeted with half a dozen armed minutemen aiming odd looking laser rifles at me.

"Stand down!" The familiar voice of Nora ordered. The woman in question was now donning a deep blue duster, tan slacks, and wielding a rather impressive looking laser rifle. It looked heavily modified, even compared to the ones that I had seen around the Prydwen. Her soldiers reluctantly lowered their weapons and dispersed, leaving her and I alone. "Where the Hell have you been?" She practically hissed at me. "Elder Maxson assaulted me because of you and all but kicked me off their ship. I've spent the past three days having the Minutemen keep tabs on your little escapades in the hopes of finding a pattern to speak with you before you go and kill off the Brotherhood!" Maxson did _what_?

"He assaulted you?" I asked incredulously. Nora, apparently realizing her mistake, attempted to backtrack.

"Not exactly. He mostly just pushed me up against a wall while trying to get me to tell him what I knew about you." The glare that had faded away redoubled in intensity. "For that matter, what _have_ you been doing these past three days? It seems like you've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

"I was getting Maxson to empty out the Prydwen so sneaking aboard would be much easier." It took a moment for her to completely understand my answer. When she did, her face drained of color and her eyes widened in fear.

"Y-you mean you've already-" She started, but I cut her off.

"Yes. And no, I haven't harmed a single hair on his pompous little head. His pride may be a bit wounded, but then again I've always been told that my wits were my strong point. At least until the world ended." I frowned at the memory of waking up one morning to deep, rumbling thunder. Putting the memory aside, I continued. "For now, at least. The Brotherhood is intact, albeit running themselves a bit ragged looking for me. I imagine that won't last another day once Maxson recalls his troops." She noticeably relaxed at my explanation, but still held a deep worry in her eyes.

"What about his whole 'you attacked a Brotherhood of Steel patrol' spiel that he fed me. I bet that's not the whole story, but Maxson isn't really known for telling lies." Oh, how naïve.

"Everyone in a position of power tells lies. Governments lie to their citizens, generals lie to their troops, Maxson lies to his soldiers. It's just a fact of life." I frowned, not liking the memories that this line of thinking was dredging up. Memories of Hellsing.

"I don't lie to the Minutemen." Nora sounded offended.

I fixed her with a stern gaze. "Haven't you? You said you had the Minutemen searching for me, but did you tell them _why_ , or even _what_ I am?" She obviously told them what I am, given the response I received upon arriving here. I needed her to say it.

"Actually, yes I did. They took it a lot better than I expected, Preston especially. Apparently there were rumors of a colony of vampires down south in the D.C. area." My eyebrows shot up in surprise. That would bear some investigating once I finished with Nuka World. "That was almost a decade ago, and they seemingly vanished off the map about two years ago." Or not. "Of course, no one believed that they were vampires, but given that we now know they actually exist. It makes you wonder what else is out there."

Unable to help myself, I let out a soft chuckle. "I once met a werewolf. Big, nasty thing."

"Oh?" Nora's curious tone almost made me feel bad for what came next.

"Took ages to kill. Eventually stabbed a silver tooth straight into its heart." She shot me a flat look, as if to say 'really?'. "Of course, I was barely a fledgling at the time. Less than two weeks into my unlife."

"Could we get back on topic?" Nora asked sternly.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, the real story is that the Brotherhood attacked me. They were doing so on orders from Elder Maxson, claiming me to be an abomination that needed to be 'put down'."

"And I can imagine how _that_ went." Nora replied.

I suppressed a frown. "Like I told Maxson, I never truly intended to kill any of his soldiers, merely give them a fright. It's not my fault they were dumb enough to try to take on a Mirelurk Queen with what amounted to pea shooters." Seriously. There's bravery and then there's headstrong stupidity.

"General," A male voice called from the archway that lead outside.

Nora sighed exasperatedly. "And I told you, to stop calling me that." The man shot her a smirk.

"You're the one wearing the uniform, after all." He replied in a tone that told me that he enjoyed reminder her of the fact.

"That reminds me, I really should get back to Nuka World. Who knows what they've been up to in my extended absence." Hopefully no one has killed each other yet, though if they have then I might just get some more snacks.

The man fixed Nora with a conflicted look. "Ma'am, are you going back too or…?" He trailed off.

Nora let out a short chuckle. "No, Preston. I'm here for a while. Finally got a lead on infiltrating the Institute. I need to hunt down a Courser and take its ID chip." She waved the arm that had her Pip-Boy on it. "All I have to do is track it down and perform non-elective brain surgery."

"What's a Courser?" I inquired. I had heard the term from several travelers, mainly that if you saw one, you went the other way. They sounded interesting.

Nora squinted in confusion. "I thought you knew what they were? You mentioned them while we were talking just after leaving Nuka World." Realization set in at what she was talking about.

"No, that's _Corsairs_. They are a 'supposed' militia that was camped out down south in the Tennessee area. They ran a protection racket for the civilians that live down there, but they're closer to raiders than they are soldiers. I wiped them out about fifteen years ago, though I still catch wind of a small group of them terrorizing people every now and then." That was part of the reason I had even gone to Nuka World in the first place. I'd heard a rumor that there was a massive group of raiders and figured that it might be them trying to regroup.

"Oh," Nora frowned. "Well a Courser is a synth designed to hunt down escaped and rogue synths. At least that's what I've been told. They're also stronger, faster, and smarter than most humans." Synth. It was obviously short for synthetic. But they could be synthetic humans? Come to think of it, that could have been why Nora's friend Danse had smelled off. I had to find one and see it for myself.

"Well, in that case I'm coming with you. It's not often I get to learn something new. Who knows? It could be fun." Nuka World wasn't going to fall apart. They may not exactly like Gage, but their fear of me should keep them kowtowed for now. Besides, I had made plans to be away for a week, and it had only been four days.

"Doing anything with someone that considers hunting a Courser 'fun' is way above my pay grade." Nora's friend commented.

"I'm pretty sure that it's above _my_ pay grade, Preston. But" she shrugged. "I digress." She turned back to me. "I had been planning on leaving today, but if you wanted to wait until tomorrow we could."

"Nope, we can go now. I want to see one of these synths for myself."

 **Nora POV**

Some few hours later, we tracked the Courser to Greenetech Genetics. The place was practically _swarming_ with Gunners, probably the last of their forces in the Commonwealth area. Several floors up we could see signs of combat, most notably the familiar blue lasers that were commonplace among the Institute's forces. Seras was content to take the lead, sticking with using her hand cannon while I used the rifle that Danse gave me. The parts I modded it with made it more akin to a DMR than a normal laser rifle. It almost reminded me of my time in the army.

' _Fall back to original positions, the Courser is nearing the elevator!'_ An intercom blared from overhead. That wasn't good. If it got up the elevator before we could catch it, then it might even finish its business here and teleport back to the Institute before we got there. How one machine could fight through an entire platoon of Gunners I'll never know.

"We should hurry." I told Seras as we rounded another corner and almost straight into a turret. Seras reacted nearly instantaneously, putting two bullets into the gun before it could even recognize us as threats. The turret exploded, sending shrapnel bouncing all over the hallway, taking one of the Gunners that had been guarding it down. I finished the other with a quick shot to the head, triggering the chain reaction effect and rendering the Gunner into a pile of ash. Out through another doorway that led us to another platform, the intercom blared to life again.

' _The Courser's after the girl. Anyone alive needs to get up to the top floor immediately. That's an order!'_ Well, at least we knew what it was after. Seras shared a look with me that told me she didn't understand why something as important as a Courser would be sent after a girl.

"The girl is probably a synth that escaped from the Institute. Coursers are sent to _deactivate_ and recover them." I spoke the word 'deactivate' with as much venom as I could muster. Nick, despite his shocking appearance, was one of the nicest people I had met in this time.

Minutes later, the fighting had all but ceased, save for a few Gunners that we had easily killed. Seras lead the way as we exited the elevator, keeping an eye and ear open for any threat.

"No, please! You don't have to do-!" A man cried from further in the building, but was cut off by a single laser shot. I winced as the familiar sizzling of a chain reaction occurred.

A condescending male voice spoke. "All he had to do was tell me the password. Now, are you going to cooperate?" A glance at Seras told me she was far from pleased with how the situation was unfolding. We crept up the stairs, scarcely making any sound as more of the Gunners pleaded for their lived and were summarily executed. We reached a larger, lit up room and spotted the Courser straight off. Motioning me to hold back, Seras strode forward, a confident smirk on her face. I followed behind her, seeing the Courser turn to face the vampire, but otherwise not making any overt move to attack her.

"Are you here for the synth?" It asked in that same condescending tone. Before Seras could reply, it seemed that the Gunner recognized her, given the way he screamed and tried to run away. Not even bothering to look, the Courser raised his rifle one handed and aimed for the fleeing man. Seras reached out and grappled the appendage, breaking it in half before it could fire. The Courser's eyes widened in surprise and it tried to raise its other arm, but Seras spartan kicked the Courser into a wall, where it made a sizable dent.

It seemed like some of the fluid that was inside a Courser had gotten onto Seras's arm when she kicked it. She gave it a cursory sniff, and grimaced. "Not even edible." She muttered, clearly disappointed. The Courser, to the credit of the Institute, was still alive despite having one of its arms almost ripped off and whatever passed for its ribcage crushed.

I placed a hand on Seras's shoulder. "Remember, not the head." Seras let out a soft chuckle and raised her hand cannon, firing half a dozen shots into the Courser's chest and creating a hole that was almost big enough for me to crawl through. I pulled out my Saturnite knife and moved towards the corpse of the Courser. Seras, clearly content to let me do the dirty deed, moved over and began tinkering with a terminal. The knife had little difficulty with whatever the Courser was made of and I soon had a dripping, severed head to take home. Not much of a door prize.

A nearby door hissed open, and a terrified looking girl peeked out into the room. Upon seeing the dead and beheaded corpse of the Courser, she recoiled slightly. "Don't worry," I spoke in a soothing voice. "You're safe now. He can't hurt you."

The synth, Jenny, had apparently not been on the run from the Institute for very long. She thanked me for the help and, after a few wary glances cast at Seras, left. Seras appropriated the Courser's outfit, citing that it both 'looked cool' and something about a terminator. Whatever that was. Chip, or rather head, in hand I headed back to the Castle while Seras departed back to Nuka World. She claimed she would return after a few days. Whether she finally intended to purge the raiders or not, I couldn't tell.


End file.
